Pipefish Babies

[suzimcmullen]

I just wanted to announce my great luck I am having with my pipefish babies. The adults were sent to me from Dana with CCritters. They are possibly dwarf pipefish. But the adults are about 5-6 inches long and I heard the dwarfs are smaller.

In any event, the daddy had 15 of them. I put them all in with my dwarf seahorses. It's been 5 weeks and 4 days and so far I have only lost 2-3. I only have one confirmed body that I found dead. Since they are masters at camouflage, I might still have 14. I know for a fact I have 12.

In the last 5 weeks, they have gone from 1/2 inch long, unable to eat baby brine shrimp to in some cases 3 inches long. The largest ones can eat brine that are more than half grown. In fact, some of them will eat adult brine by just chomping at them over and over until they break them up and eat them in pieces.

Eventually, I'll have to get them out of my dwarf tank. I think they are about to take over and cause too much of a competition with the dwarf horses.

Has anyone else here raised pipefish babies from birth successfully? Does anyone know at what age they become sexually mature?

Suzi

 

[Pulp Fishin]

Good to hear Suzi,
I think my gulf pipefish is prego. Any good tips or books I should be reading? Even websights?
Cheers

 

[suzimcmullen]

I could not find anything positive about raising pipefish anyplace. All I could find was thread after thread, all over the net often dating back to 2000 and 2001! People come on, ask how to raise them and then never come back to say if they were able to. Several people told me that they would more than likely die and they never knew anyone able to raise them.

Mine are 6 weeks old today. They are doing well still and I have confirmed a count of 13 that are still alive.

When my guys were first born it looked like they should have been able to do newborn brine. But they could not and would miss most every time. I filled the tank with as many copepods as I possibly could. I also kept green water right in their tank so that I could keep their tank full of brine 24/7 and give the brine food to eat while in there. I put 2 filters on the back of a 10 gallon and raise them with my dwarf horses.

That's it. It's been really simple. The 2 HOB filters have helped keep the brine in the water column and they have been remarkably able to eat them better in the high flow than when I would stop the flow to see if they could catch them easier. It only took about one week of copepods before they were able to eat baby brine.

Suzi

Suzi

 

[Pulp Fishin]

YEah from what I have read raising pipefish is hard to impossible for the average hobbiest.
Still I;ve been noticing my males stomach looks liek hes holding babies or ready to at least. He also acting out of the ordinary, usually he spends his days slinking along his belly across the substrate or along the rocks. The last 5 days hes been along the top of the water in one corner of the tank or another or behind a powerhead. Its starting to worry me since yesterday I didn't see him in the display tank and finaly found him in my sump!

I'm keeping a close eye out on things.

 

[ScooterTDI]

I think there is some big differences among pipefish with regards to the ease with which they can be raised. I've heard quite a few accounts of dwarf pipes and gulf pipes being raised. I think the flag tail pipes are considerably more difficult. I've only heard a few accounts of success with flag tails and even then I only remember hearing about blue-lines.

Scott

 

[seattleguy]

Hey post some Pictures Please.

 

[twinspots_goby]

definitely like to see pics. Lucky you.

 

[rosebud161616]

How is your luck going with your pipefish fry? Being that dwarf seahorses need sterile conditions and live foods I would bet that their tank would be a great pipefish breeding space. Very interesting idea!